Conventional plants for wool washing have generally a series of bowls in which raw wool is washed countercurrently with water to remove the wool wax and the sludges. These bowls are often preceded by a cold water wash in which the soluble matter is first removed (the suint salts) and are often followed by a rinse, also with cold water. The sludge-containing water and the wax-containing water are separated and treated separately by means of decanters centrifuges and sedimentation apparatus and the remaining water is evaporated to be returned to the wool washing zone.
One of the problems which has faced the industry has been the difficulty experienced in the evaporation step due to the presence of waxes and it is one of the objects of the present invention to reduce this difficulty.
A further object of the invention is to reduce the water necessary to be evaporated than was the case in prior art arrangements known to the applicants.